okay, here's a word on this movie. it was definitely an ensemble movie, not really a batman movie. it was the 'bruce wayne/joker/jim gordan/harvey dent' show. without each other they wouldn't be...
so far, I've read
Batman: Year One
and I'm working through
The Dark Knight Returns
The library just alerted me to the fact that "The Killing Joke" has arrived.
year one was awesome!
you're a good man. killing joke is nuts.
So I finished The Dark Knight Returns this morning. I gotta say, it was excellent. The female Robin was intriguing, I loved seeing Batman fight Superman, and I loved the trick at the end. Having read it, now that whole "sons of batman" thing makes a little more sense, but I still feel the movie confused the whole thing.
There were some parts I didn't get. For instance, I always thought that Commissioner Gordon's daughter is named Barbara and that she becomes Batgirl. But in Year One, Commissioner Gordon's wife is named Barbara- and in Dark Knight Returns, she's Sarah? I was really confused by this. (Side note, I just Wikipedia'd this and apparently it depends on which line of continuity the particular story happens to be in. Which is weak, if you ask me.) (Ok I read more of the Wikipedia article. Apparently she is his niece, who he adopts. Seriously, I do not have this kind of time, people!)
oh, some other things I didn't like. I still argue that Batman is supposed to be large, and muscular (and completely unlike Christian Bale). The comics show him as absolutely huge, with large shoulders and massive arms. He towers over a lot of people, both as Bruce Wayne and Batman.
Also, in the comics, Batman spends a lot of time dodging bullets. For someone who has a bulletproof suit, he spends a lot of time acting like he could die if he gets hit. That also makes little to no sense. The guy has millions of dollars and doesn't bother to wear a bulletproof suit? What sense does that make?